Strike
by Kenny Powers
Summary: Original work.  Rishi Kayamoto is a kid who has a interest in bowling. Will his talent blossom or will he be unable to be what he wishes.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Rishi Kayamoto is just your average high school kid, nothing much but the tides of spring on his mind. Don't be mistaken though, he isn't some hero pitcher in the Koshien or anything special. He had always viewed himself as a man of not many talents, average looks, normal height, normal weight (maybe a bit skinny for his height), and not that popular with the ladies or anyone for that matter. However, Rishi could always rely on his two friends, Jing Hoo-Min and Setsuki Nakato.

Jing Hoo-Min was a quirky, small, outgoing, Korean boy. Rishi and he had met under irregular circumstances. On the way back from a trip to Korea to visit distant relatives Rishi had to go to the restroom, which he hated to do on planes. Normally he would have held it in but, 'when you gotta go you gotta go' as they say. He rushed into the bathroom and immediately spun about and began to unzip, it was then that he noticed the small foreign boy already sitting on the toilet. A streak of red comparable to the fire in a lover's eye crossed Rishi's face. He began apologizing with no end in sight. By the time the boy had finally broken his streak, Rishi's throat was as red as his face. They discussed many things that day and found that Jing would be in the same school as Rishi, in the same class on top of that. Faster than a beat of the heart, Rishi offered to show Jing around Japan. After that they become good friends. The friendship they had was the kind of lucid beauty one sees in a dream that appeared to be tangible but could never be touched, no matter how far the arms stretched.

Being the new first year high school transfer student, Jing had no friends except for Rishi. One day he was being bullied by two upper-classmen when the idol of class 1b, Setsuki, appeared to his aid. She tried to drive off the upper-classmen by yelling and quite loud. However, this failed to work and soon one of the upper-classmen raised his arm towards Setsuki, about to strike her across the face. Jing, upon seeing this, bolted up to punch him in the gut, but was quickly dispatched of by the other of these upper-class thugs. After which, they proceeded to use him as a human punching bag. Setsuki attempted to pry them off of Jing, to no avail.

Later that day Rishi had heard news of the fight and ran to the nurse's office to find Jing beaten, tattered, and bloody. He ignored the girl sitting on the chair next to Jing and ran up to the bedside.

"Jing! What's happened! Who did this! I swear, tell me their names and I'll settle this!"

Jing rolled towards Rishi and gave the slightest smile and said,

"If you go after them then they will come back and go after you and it will be an endless cycle of pain. Just please let it go, for me."

Rishi was in the process of storming out when he felt something grasp his wrist. He swirled around to find a tear ridden Setsuki. She led him outside and told him all about what had happened and how Jing protected her. When Rishi was leaving, Setsuki slipped a paper in his hand. Without stopping or even looking back he checked the paper.

"_Ryojin Asamura class 3c and Kano Sotsumi class 3c"_

Rishi didn't know either of the two, but he figured it wouldn't be too hard to find delinquents such as them. The truth stung through his heart like a pure melody in a world without sound. He knew that he couldn't take them, at least not without a weapon. As he was walking home he thought of an applicable weapon to beat the crap out of them with.

He burst into his house and ran up to his father's room. Rishi went through the whole layout of his room in his head on the way home and couldn't find anything to be used, so he thought of checking his father's. He searched through the closet for anything blunt or sharp.

What Rishi showed up with to school the next day was a bit unorthodox but it would have to do. He left a note in class 3c for Ryojin and Kano to meet him behind the school after class. Of course thugs of their caliber could not turn down an offer to fight, so Rishi saw them rear their faces around the corner.

Rishi got right to the point and lunged at Kano with a bowling ball raised above his head. Kano saw the lunge and prepared to counter the oncoming blow. However, both forces were stopped by none other than the principle.

"Now I know no students of my school would be fighting behind our backs, and with weapons at that! I believe we can come to a peaceful conclusion to whatever argument you two are having." The principle glanced at Rishi and saw the bowling ball. "Ah, I have an idea, how about a bowling match? Now I hope you both know the situation you are in and accept this way of settling the argument, or else we might have trouble."

"I've never bowled in my entire life! This ball isn't even mine, it's my dad's!" Yelled Rishi frantically.

"Well I'm sure your father would be glad you are using it to bowl instead of –other activities-"

Kano retorted by saying that he never backs down from a challenge. That day the first bowling match of Rishi's life was about to be planned out. This wasn't good for Rishi, especially since the only thing he knew about bowling had to due with his father's stories. Rishi, however reluctant, had to agree because he didn't want his dad hounding his ass over fighting in school.


	2. Chapter 2

Strike 2

"Tomorrow! That's way too early! I don't even know how to bowl!"

Rishi's words rang through his head later that night, while he was lying in his bed. When his dad got home he might actually have to ASK about his old bowling stories. That is if he wanted any chance of winning.

While many thoughts of tomorrow rolled through his head he heard the door slam shut. He rushed downstairs to see Kazuma Kayamoto walking across the room. He was a big man, specifically around the gut. So is the fate of so many former athletes, thought Rishi. However, Rishi never thought of bowling as a sport so he didn't know whether or not to call him an athlete.

"My boy! Ri-Ri, get down here and hug your father!"

"Ow! Dad not so hard! And I told you not to call me that anymore!" said Rishi after a big embrace from his father.

"Ah kids these days. They grow up much too fast! You're almost taller than me now."

"Yeah right, dad you're a giant! You coul- wait never mind that! Dad I have to talk to you about something. Something I should have paid attention to a while a go. Dad could you tell me how to bowl?

Kazuma looked at his son with a proud yet confused smirk. He knew his son has never given a damn about bowling before. He had thrown around the idea of asking his son why the sudden change of heart. Although he couldn't explain why, he felt a strong reason not to ask him. Throughout the night Kazuma explained bowling to Rishi for about the millionth time in his life.

"You aren't by any chance going to bowl soon are you?" Kazuma asked his son. "You've never shown any interest in bowling before."

"Yea dad, I've got a score to settle and through a long complicated story it turned in to a bowling match."

"It's a relief that you aren't fighting though right?" Kazuma let a smile escape him.

"When have I ever fought before?"

"Well you haven't, I'm just saying I'm glad you can solve your problems through more grown up means."

"Since when is a game grown up?"

"Bowling is a sport, not just some game!" Kazuma inadvertently raised his voice.

A long uncomfortable pause followed after, within which they never met eyes. A short time afterwards they both apologized at the same time. A small laugh followed suit and they quickly made up. Another pause, until Kazuma broke it with…

"You know you have bowled before."

"I can't say I remember, sorry" Rishi darted his eyes away from his father.

"It's fine; you were just a boy after all at the time. You know if I remember you never had a problem knocking the pins down."

"That's good to hear I'm going to need luck like that tomorrow." Rishi looked towards the clock, Kazuma than did the same.

"You should be getting to bed. Kids shouldn't stay up too late."

"Neither should old men." They both smiled.

Rishi stood up and made his way back to the stairs. He passed by a hallway with a picture sitting on a small table to the right. He paused and turned around to face the picture. It had a tall slender man on the left, a beautiful woman on the right, and a small boy in the middle. They were all happy.

"Night mom." Rishi continued on his way upstairs and left his father sitting by a table all alone.

"Night you two…"


	3. Chapter 3

Strike 3

Rishi's alarm only had to ring once this morning for him to wake up instead of the usual five times. He was pumped up for the following day. He was much more confident today than he was yesterday. Rishi was almost like a new man. Thoughts about his talk last night with his father only made him more eager. Blasting through his morning routine, he darted downstairs and out the door to school. On the way to school he met Jing and they walked to school together, all the while talking about how Rishi would destroy Kano in the bowling match later that day. A little later on they even met Setsuki, whom both the boys were surprised, was walking with them. She was even joining in on the conversation about the bowling match.

"You're kidding? How many people know about this?" Rishi asked after he heard Setsuki talking about it.

"Just about everyone in the school knows about it. Try to guess who they are rooting for, the big hero Rishi "the pin killer"." Setsuki said smiling.

"What? The pin killer? I've barely even bowled before!"

"Well now you got to win!" said Jing while giving Rishi a little push to the shoulder.

"Yea no doubt! This game is in the bag! In fact I don't think it's even possible for me to lose."

As Rishi said this he bumped in to both the first and last person he wanted to see. It was none other than Kano himself. He didn't even realize he was at school yet. Rishi raised his arms defensively but Kano waved them away.

"I'm not here to fight. I'm here to make sure I got the place where the bowling match is going down right." Kano flashed him a slip of paper.

"Yea, you got it right." Rishi flashed him a cold piercing stare as he said this. As Kano started to leave Rishi tapped his shoulder.

"What?" Kano said, looking down at Rishi.

"Are you going to apologize or what?"

"Oh? And to whom am I apologizing?"

"To Jing." Rishi clenched his teeth and his fists.

"Tell ya what kid, you beat me in this bowling match and I will. If you lose though, you have to give me that bowling ball you brought to school the other day. It looks like it's worth a pretty penny or two."

"Deal."

Rishi and Kano shook hands. Jing looked on feeling a little proud that Rishi would bet something just so someone would apologize to him. Setsuki was happy that Rishi was an advocate of justice. Although, Setsuki couldn't wipe every doubt of worry she had. She didn't want Rishi to lose. But she couldn't let Rishi see her worry, because she didn't want Rishi to lose faith in himself.

"You can do it!" Setsuki said as Kano was out of earshot.

The school day went by slower than any day of school Rishi had been to. He couldn't wait to go give it his all later that day. Once as his dad had said, a true man's colors always show when he is going at it with everything he has face to face with the enemy who's just as motivated as he is. Rishi always thought it was kind of a weird thing to say, but now he thought he knew what his dad was talking about.

~Riiiing, Riiiiiiiiing~

The bell rang and a look of determination had crossed Rishi's face. He was more pumped for this than for anything he's ever done. He ran straight to the bowling alley and began warming up. After he went over his technique enough to have it down pat he did a few practice matches by himself. He was better than he thought he would be but Rishi still wasn't sure if it would be enough to win. He wasn't sure if Kano had any experience bowling, but he seemed to know which bowling balls would be valuable, as to their prior encounter.

"Hey kid. You ready?"

Rishi turned around, it was Kano.


End file.
